Painting the Figure on the Beach

For thirty years Charles Hawthorne taught outdoor painting  on the beach in Provincetown.

By sitting the models with their  backs to the sun the artist is able to see masses of color better than in an indoor studio.

Hawthorne usually used the local Portuguese children to pose.

Because of their dark complexion they affectionately called the  paintings
"Mud Heads".

I attended the Cape Cod School of Art ,

during the last eight years of the School. The Barn on 46 Pearl Street was everything a summer art studio should be. The barn was insulated  in the 1930's with these Mud Head paintings, that students left behind after the summer.

When the school closed, these paintings where removed and sold around town.

Today the painting of the Mud Head continues. Here we are on the beach yesterday painting the outdoor portrait. This is a great way to learn the light key because you have a few patterns to tackle, the Model, water and sky, or beach.

Mud Head 1930's

John Clayton Painting the Mud Head

My Studies

Here is my study from this morning. I am now moving beyond mud head, and beginning to model the planes of the head with color. When you develop the study it becomes more of an outdoor portrait than a Mud Head. The reason Charles Hawthorne made his students paint with a putty knife was to keep them from modeling and creating details.